One of the things on my never ending list was to get bunk beds for the kids.

I just never got to it since I know a needed quite a bit of moolah for good, sturdy bunkbeds. My dream was getting pottery barn bunk beds.

Well, as I was browsing craigslist on Wedneday night (7:30pm) (lazily laying on the couch) I saw a craigslist add for pottery barn bunk beds with two pottery barn mattresses for only $450! Now that is a deal!

I saw that the posting was listed only and hour ago, we quickly called and agreed to pick it up the next day at one.

Well, I quickly measured the kids room and decided that it would be to tight for a bunk bed in there. Solution? Move the kids room into the guest room. How simple, right? Not.

So right then, I pulled out all of the furniture out of the guest room and got to work. I dug left over paint and started painting. Then I put the kids to bed and painted till 2 am!

After 5 hours of sleep, I got up at 7am and continued to paint!

Then an annoying thing happened, I ran out of paint!

I had to pack the kids up and run to Home Depot for paint, then back home to paint more, before hubby got home with the bunk beds.

Lets just say that I had a very hard past 24 hours.

I am very thankful for the sabbath, so I can relax now.

Here is a before and after:

If someone told me that I would have to paint, move all furniture and organize a room, clean the house, go grocery shopping all while taking care of two kids in 24 hours, I would have said you are crazy!

I always get so excited when I get my birchbox in the mail. This months theme is "All wrapped up", The birchbox team wants their subscribers to look and feel our best for the holidays. Aw, thats sweet.

It's a monthly subscription service which is $10.00 a month. First you take a little survey, so they can find out more about your skin, make up likes and dislikes. Just so they know what to send you. You get 4-5 high end samples in the mail. You can then turn around and review your products for points. You get 10 points per product review. So you can get 50 points per box. 100 points is $10 you can use at the birchbox store.

What Birchbox says: Throw wrinkles a curve ball with this advanced serum, which is propritary peptide duo to firm and brighten skin.

What I say: First of-kudos on the awesome sample packaging. Love the size and the pump.

I started using this right away. LOVE it! I have some wrinkles starting to show on my forehead.

This seeped into my skin in less then 60 seconds and then I was able to continue with the rest of my skin care. I cringed at the full size price. But if I see a difference in my skin, once I am done with my sample, I might consider buying the full size with some of my birchbox points.

Ever since having kids, I have been putting more effort into decorating for Holidays.

Even with the slim pickens of Hanukkah decorations at the store, I made it work.

Just some brief overview on Hanukkah and what it is:

In Hebrew "hanukkah" means dedication. The name reminds us that this holiday commemorates the re-dedication of the holy Temple in Jerusalem following the Jewish victory over the Syrian-Greeks in 165 B.C.E.

Once the Maccabees had regained control they returned to the Temple in Jerusalem. By this time the Temple has been defiled by using it for worship of foreign Gods and sacrificing swine. Jewish troops were determined to purify the Temple by burning ritual oil in the Temple's menorah for eight days.

But they only had enough oil left for one day in the Temple. (It took 8 days to make more oil) They lit the menorah anyways and to their surprise the small amount of oil lasted for the full eight days!

Every year it is customary to commemorate the miracle of the Hanukkah by lighting a hanukkah menorah. The hanukkah is lit every night for eight nights.

Traditionally the Hanukkah menorah is set in front of the window (we tried it but with a curious 2 year old, it wasn't very safe) For next year, we will buy a electric menorah to put in the window.

We decided to make fun iced cookies for hanukkah this year, I used my trusty cookie recipe and they turned out just right. The kids love these, and I love the all cookie cutters, you can eat a couple guilt free :)PRINT RECIPE

I have really been enjoying learning about hanukkah and all that it stands for. For example I learned that sufganiyot is a very popular fried doughnut that people make on Hanukkah to symbolize the miracle of oil that lasted for 8 days instead of one.

OK, my dear hebrew cousins (I don't know if you read this blog or not) but how come you never made this for me to eat? These are DELICIOUS! I don't know if I made them right or wrong, but let me tell you that I will be making them over and over again, and not only on Hanukkah.

There are a lot of recipes out there for sufganiyot, Here are a few I found:

I love those times when I "accidently" make something and it actually turns out good! Does that ever happen to you? What am I saying, off course it does.

I took some puff pastry to thaw. I had the full intention on making cannolis, but we already had a variety of desserts and sweets. So I decided to make something savory instead. Now I didn't want to pack up the kids for a grocery store run so I turned to my fridge.

I had some mushrooms (I love mushrooms! I always make sure I have some in my fridge) I had some asparagus and cheese. I decided to risk it and snapped some pics along the way, just incase it turned out well.

So this is what I created:

Ok, tell me that doesn't look good?

I think this would be great for a brunch, appetizer or served with a salad for a meal.